Conventional wood fasteners often are used to assemble deck structures. Over time, these fasteners exhibit several problems. As the deck weathers and goes through repeated freezing and thawing cycles, these fasteners may back at least partially out of the wood, leaving metal protrusions sticking up from the deck surface. This problem may be exacerbated by the elastic nature of the materials through which the fasteners are driven, i.e., often wood or similar materials. The fibers of the material that are displaced by driving the fasteners into the substrate attempt to return to their original placement, causing the wood to tend to close on the fasteners. This leads to compression upon the shanks of the fasteners and can cause even further backing out.
The protrusions caused by the backed-out fasteners are unsightly, may make people walking on the deck more prone to tripping, and may cause the deck materials to at least partially separate from each other, which may shorten the life of the deck or require that the user expend additional resources in repairing the deck.
What is needed is a fastener that addresses the problems of the prior art.